Ode to a Standing One by Morwen Two Feathers
Thursday, October 1st 2009 @ 10:30 AM
In June, 2008, Morwen attended the Wildbranch Writers Workshop, co-sponsored by Orion Magazine and Sterling College, where, in the company of 30 other seekers, she explored the craft of writing about the environment. Here she shares her encounter with one of the beings of that place.
Rising tall and straight, silvery and substantial, you probe deep into the soft, spongy Earth and simultaneously reach into the sky, dancing with the sun. Great, furling sheets of skin adorn your body, darkening to black in the air’s caress while the new skin beneath shines smooth and silver. I tilt my head back to seek your crown; it is lost to my gaze, merging with the greenery of your fellows in the dance. Sinking to the ground at your feet, I smell the sweet odor of clean dirt, loam built up over many years of falling leaves and falling rain. I lean against your body and sense the answering pulse of life force. Breathing, I receive the gift of your pure healing breath, and offer you my breath in return. If I slow down, I wonder if I can enter your time zone, arching gracefully across human life spans.
Here you stand, mother of majesty, holding court among the standing ones while the crawling, flying, and walking ones come into your presence, and go. Do you yearn to leave this place, to travel beyond your horizon, to taste the air and water of different climes? Even as the question forms I feel your answer, emanating from your body before I ever came. This is your place, as much a part of you as the limbs that carry me everywhere are a part of me. In this moment of communion I feel my roots sink down and entwine with yours. Yet I know that all too soon my human agenda will take me far from here, while you will remain, holding a piece of my heart here in this place.
From Volume 7, No. 1 & 2
Photo: Heather McLeod
